Editing Fort Gay, West Virginia (section)

==History==
{{Onesource|section|date=March 2025}}
The Fort Gay community traces back to 1789, when 11 people established a settlement at the junction of the Tug and Big Sandy rivers, across from what is now Louisa, Kentucky.<ref name=APfortgay>{{cite news|first=Vicky |last=Smith |url=http://katu.com/news/offbeat/xbox-live-shuts-down-fort-gay-gamer---oops-its-real |title=Xbox Live shuts down 'Fort Gay' gamer - oops, it's real!|work=Associated Press|date=September 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414160257/http://katu.com/news/offbeat/xbox-live-shuts-down-fort-gay-gamer---oops-its-real |archive-date=April 14, 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>  In 1875, it was chartered as Cassville; though it was simultaneously known as Fort Gay.  In 1932, the town's name was officially changed to Fort Gay.  Although there is no evidence as to why the name was changed, there are several prevalent theories: that either the railroad company or post office did not want two Cassvilles on the same route/state (there is another [[Cassville, West Virginia]]), or that a Civil War nurse named Gay became synonymous with the town.<ref name=APfortgay/>

Fort Gay is a part of the [[Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area]]. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649.

The [[Norfolk Southern Railway]]'s Kenova District goes through the western edge of town.

In 2010, Fort Gay got media attention when Microsoft suspended an [[Xbox Live]] account that belonged to a Fort Gay resident for writing "Fort Gay WV" as his location, as [[Microsoft]] has language policies that prohibit references to [[homosexuality]]. Microsoft customer service representatives refused to acknowledge that Fort Gay existed, and it took an appeal from Mayor David Thompson and media coverage for the issue to be corrected.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Whitworth |first=Dan |date=2010-09-10 |title=Xbox apologises over 'gay' suspension |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-11258407 |access-date=2025-02-17 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name=APfortgay/>